Dear all

I have no idea what yield to expect from my first tomato plants

I have planted 20 gardeners delight and 20 F1 inca (plum)
(which I expect will be excessive)

I dont really have a problem with having a massive yield
as I oven dry and freeze toms, and make buckets of pasta/pizza sauces
and I can always supply friends and family with the excess
I suppose its where to put them (no greenhouse)
I would have the room for a loads of those growbag size plastic growhouses

anyway next question,

I got a plastic growhouse in Lidl but its not that tall (about 3.5 foot)
Do the plants have to be a certain height?

many thanks in advance

niall

"fourmations" wrote in message
news
Dear all

I have no idea what yield to expect from my first tomato plants

I have planted 20 gardeners delight and 20 F1 inca (plum)
(which I expect will be excessive)

I dont really have a problem with having a massive yield
as I oven dry and freeze toms, and make buckets of pasta/pizza sauces
and I can always supply friends and family with the excess
I suppose its where to put them (no greenhouse)
I would have the room for a loads of those growbag size plastic growhouses

anyway next question,

I got a plastic growhouse in Lidl but its not that tall (about 3.5 foot)
Do the plants have to be a certain height?


Less than 3.5 ft tall would seem to be a good start.

Sorry niall couldn't resist that one.

More seriously if the width and length of this grow house
are in proportion to the height of 3.5 ft then you've got
around 32 too many plants in there.

At a guess around eight would be the maximum.

Don't throw any away, just plant them in in the garden
onece all danger of frost has passed. A growhosue that size is
probably more suited to raisng plants early IMO. Or growing
naturally smaller subjects.

I've never tried to grow toms in a sitauation with a 3.5 height
restriction, so I can only guess.

As soon as each stem touches the top cut them back. This will
encourage sides shoots from the next leaf node down, and these
will need to be trimmed at well. Left to their own devices, the
stems will bend and grow along the inside of the roof blocking
out all the light. Or if you've got any open ventilation
they will grow through that. (Thats the stems of eight plants.
40 plants doesn't bear thinking about)

You need nice healthy leaves on the plants to feed the fruit
but not so many as to block the light from others.

You'll have a better idea by this time next year in any case.

michael adams






many thanks in advance

niall

I'd agree that the height is a problem. I tried to grow three toms in
a 5' plastic greenhouse thing last year and it was a disaster for a
number of reasons:

- toms can get really tall, and the more you pinch them out the more
determined they get.
- the growhouse couldn't be ventilated properly without wind damage to
plants and growhouse.
- the amount of airflow around the fruit is poor, leading to rots and
other nasties.

Tomato plants are way bigger than you expect them to be. Pop them
outside somewhere sunny when the frosts have gone and you'll have a
hedge by August! Oh, and wear gloves when you're trimming them - the
sap smells and sticks to everything!

Good luck!

fourmations wrote:
Dear all

I have no idea what yield to expect from my first tomato plants

I have planted 20 gardeners delight and 20 F1 inca (plum)
(which I expect will be excessive)

I dont really have a problem with having a massive yield
as I oven dry and freeze toms, and make buckets of pasta/pizza sauces
and I can always supply friends and family with the excess
I suppose its where to put them (no greenhouse)
I would have the room for a loads of those growbag size plastic growhouses

anyway next question,

I got a plastic growhouse in Lidl but its not that tall (about 3.5 foot)
Do the plants have to be a certain height?

many thanks in advance

niall

I'm growing some tumblers for the first time this year, I will likely
have more than I can eat. Can you describe how you go about drying and
freezing ??

SNIP

I'm growing some tumblers for the first time this year, I will likely
have more than I can eat. Can you describe how you go about drying and
freezing ??

Hi NC (and all)

i oven dry cherry toms (your tumblers provide a small fruit I think)

Personally I skin them first (optional but worth doing, boiling water
method)
then half them and put on oven tray, shake some salt on,
put in oven at 100C (or less) for about six hours,
they will shrink considerably and turn into the tastiest tiniest thing
youvever had!

just keep an eye on them every now and then,
you could do them overnight at a lower temp
but i did try them on the lowest the oven will go
and they werernt ready by morning.

to freeze, just allow to cool, freeze them spaced on greaseproof paper
like you would with soft fruit. then you can bag them and they will
stay seperate. use in sauces, salads, soups etc

I think that it would be more accurate to class then as "sunblushed"
as there will still be a little moisture in them

they are far superior to the oil slicked leather sundried strips you get in
jars

beware, that they may not make the freezer if you taste them first!!
the first ones i did lasted about 10minutes!

g'luck

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